🏀 KuBuckets Archive

That was better last night I thought from effort to rebounding. You can tell Self was on them in practice to improve in several area's.

Highlights-

Frank Mason played really well. I think he's more athletic this year and quicker. The question is, how healthy will he be at the end of the year. More on that later.

Svi has looked really good so far. If he's consistent in his effort and production he'll be drafted this year. He's a real wild card for this team, what consistent production offensively and on the boards he gives is what we need to absorb the struggles in the post.

DG had a much better game. Still want him to be more aggressive on offense which I'm sure will come when the competition gets tougher. Great shooter though.

Jackson flashed some big time ability. His shot is a joke so he'll be a streaky shooter at best all year. If he stays aggressive he'll be great. His passing ability is already a noticeable upgrade to this team. Rebounding & handles (for the most part) also look significantly better then what we got from Wayne.

Vick is just an electric athlete. Will be interesting to see if he or Svi starts the opener on Friday.

Lows-

Bragg- obvious choice here. Not sure what is going on with him but this is not the player we were hoping for all off-season. There is reason to be concerned but I'll wait on him. We have to hope he'll turn it around because his play so far has been as "soft as charmin".

Perimeter defense- This will be the biggest area that hurts us against Indiana & Duke if our guards do not come to play. Tripper Allen lives at driving and drawing fouls. Indiana has multiple guards that can cause problems.

Injuries to Mason & Graham. Self talked about both having minor injuries already. Haven't even played a real game and our 2 most important players are dealing with ailments. You have got to be kidding me.

5 days we get a real test. I hope practice is spirited this week!

I saw flashes of what these guys will do going forward. Flashes. Svi looked very comfortable on both ends of the court. I sure like Azubuike's aggressiveness. He ran the floor, he mixed it up under the rim and he was calling for the ball on fast breaks. Good grief, a 7 foot, 275 pounder running the fast break.

Jackson showed some aggressiveness, but still looks a bit hesitant. Coach keeps talking about his motor and competiveness. I can't wait for him to get fully acclimated.

Frank is just amazing. I can't wait to see him turn it up against Indiana on Friday. Let's get it on. RCJH

Both in the above comments and in the press I've read, it's like Lucas just doesn't exist.

Was he bad, blah or mediocre?

@ParisHawk Landon played fine, but not very many minutes. He had a couple of good post moves and got in good position under the rim for rebounds. KU just didn't need him to do much. Azubuike played much more and was given most of the minutes at the 5 spot. Like Graham, Lucas hasn't needed to turn it on yet.

@ParisHawk

He was okay, had a few good moves around the basket early, rebounded okay. He will have to step up if Bragg's struggles continue

@stoptheflop

Udoka does run the floor well. Let's face it Emporia didn't have anyone to guard him with and its easy to look good when your standing 1 foot from the basket and jumping and dunking. He missed a handful of other easy dunks and baskets which I think is concerning. He'll get fouled by better competition and that FT shot he has is ugly. He does seem ready to give us some good minutes off the bench though. We'll see how he defends against better.

Lucas was....well Lucas. He's never going to wow us, but he will play smart defense, and do just enough offensively. He played well enough, but nothing flashy. He only played 16 minutes because it wasn't a real game. A real game I think Self wants him around 20-25 minutes.

Lucas was solid. In position and didn't screw things up for the rest of the team. Udoka is obviously learning as is Jackson. Once they figure out their respective rolls in the offense everything will look much smoother. Losing two 3 year starters has made the team look rough around the edges.

I personally am glad the team isn't at it's peak in the first game of the season. I am looking forward to watching the team grow and bond!

@dylans

Good points, the team is definitely not even close to its peak. We'll learn a lot coming up how far they are as a group

Self said they did not run a single offensive set in either exhibition, which I will believe based on what I saw.

We are gonna need Lucas to check Bryant on Friday.

@BeddieKU23 I agree with yor thoughts. I think im more excited about how Svi and Udoka played over being upset about DG or Bragg. Its pretty early, we dont want to be playing our best ball this early IMO. We could be 0-2 real easy if we dont play well. But it wont matter the 03 team went to Maui and got killed and still almost got a NC. One game at a time just get 1% better everyday.

@BShark

Which is smart, he doesn't want to give them any film away for them to prepare against.

@kjayhawks

The early season games can mean something. They are important for seeding, especially if you have 2 neural court victories against at the time the #1 & #11 teams in the country. With the Big-12 expected to be down, non-conference wins could be the difference in a seed line come March.

We certainly don't want to start 0-2. It wouldn't be the end of the world but it wouldn't be a positive start either. We are still a young team and its showing so far. The biggest thing I'm worried about is fundamentals; rebounding, passing, turnovers, FT shooting. I would like to see us control those 4 aspects playing Indiana & Duke in the next week

@BeddieKU23 we want to play in kc!

@BeddieKU23 Ya I want to win for sure but all is not lost if we dont. I'd be shocked if we didnt atleast win one of them. The seeding maybe effected bye these games but it seems everytime we get a good win early it gets discredited because of the timing. I think it should help in the long run but teams usually get better as the year goes on, look no further than Nova getting spanked bye OU early and spanking them back in the FF. I say lets just beat both any worry about the rest later. One other ? I have is does a guy like Lightfoot red shirt? We know Self likes his 8 man rotation most of the time and I think he is the 9th man. I've been impressed with him no doubt but would it be better with Coleby to just let him sit? or does a guy have to sit for the exhibtion games to red shirt?

Coach Self indicated that Lucas needs to step up because he will be need to play at least 25 minutes per game. He also indicated that Devonte has been cramping up a lot lately and the trainers are working with him to figure out why. One time he was fouled and went to the line to take the shots, he stayed bend over for a while; I thought he maybe got a low blow but in hindsight it could have been cramps.

@JayHawkFanToo That definitely looked like a low blow to me. The thing I'm a little worried about is Frank's hand. He was holding it most of the game and there wasn't much mention of it. We need both those guys healthy all year to have a respectable record and definitely healthy at the end to make a run.

@kjayhawks

Not sure on the exact rule for red-shirting but I believe if Lightfoot plays 1 minutes of game action his red-shirt is over. I think we need him to play this year because its important for him for his soph year when he'll be counted on more. He looks like he can play some and we can all see Coleby is not even close to 100% out there so having that extra body available is important.

Unless the rule has changed this year, freshmen can play in exhibition games and then redshirt. Once they go on the court in a regular game, no.

Non-freshmen can only redshirt if they have played in no game, even exhibitions.

@BeddieKU23 Ya, Coleby really doesn't look all that good but as you say he prob isn't a 100% yet.

@ParisHawk

A player could still get a medical red-shirt even if he has played several games already.

To be eligible for a medical hardship waiver, a student-athlete has to meet the following criteria:

• The student-athlete must suffer the injury during one of their four seasons of college competition or during the senior year of high school.
• The injury must be incapacitating. That means it must be a season-ending injury.
• The injury must occur prior to the start of the second half of the season.
• The student-athlete must not have competed in more than 30% of the season or three contests, whichever is greater.

@kjayhawks

I just don't see why Lightfoot would red-shirt. At this point I place him ahead of Bragg and Coleby and he looks like he will be a good contributor to the team.

No way he red shirts! 10 players, minus a not ready for prime time-coleby.

@JayHawkFanToo Yes, agreed, but that wasn't the question. I trust it was clear we were talking about normal redshirts. Lightfoot is not injured.

There will be no (non-medical) redshirts among the 10 eligible scholarship players. Having just 10 is already risky.

We really should have 5 scholarship bigs and 6 scholarship guards/wings. We are short 1 guard/wing and the 5 we do have are going to have to play additional minutes with "small ball".

@ParisHawk

I was just pointing out that blanket statements sometimes do not cover all situations, that is all.

@JayHawkFanToo Was not a blanket statement, that is all.

I would love to comment on last night's game, even though its a day old. However, can anyone tell why I can get every other ESPN3 replay EXCEPT for KU. I keep getting "Internal User Authorization Error." Geesh....If I didn't know any better, I'd think ESPN was blocking the replay on purpose.

I'm pissed.

@JayHawkFanToo He's not ahead of Bragg.

@truehawk93 i watched it this morning no problem on espn3. Actually the video was so sharp I was rather impressed.

@truehawk93 I just tried it from my watch ESPN app and it worked. Do you get it from your cable co?

@KUSTEVE

I am not sure where they stand on Coach Self's rotation, but in my opinion...and it is just that...and based on what I saw in the first two games, I believe Lightfoot has played and has better numbers than Bragg.

@JayHawkFanToo Bragg will have more chances to prove himself, and he will.

@Crimsonorblue22

No question about it. His upside is huge.

@BeddieKU23

High: Vick with zero TOs in 25 mpg. It means they can feasibly play 4-1 for half a game.

@BeddieKU23 I was at the game last night. I thoguht Vick looked really really good. Udoka looked like a man too! Lob after lob being fed his way.

@jaybate-1.0

I hope so, he's an important player on this team

@JayHawkFanToo Lightfoot looks like a more talented version of Jamari Traylor. High energy, high motor, not huge, but very pesky, persistent, and aggressive. He'll be a good 4 year player.

@Crimsonorblue22 yes, log in via cable one

@Kubie I was asking @truehawk93